Smoking Out of Cans: Don’t do it Yourself

Everyone gets in a jam from time to time. You have bud and a lighter, but you don’t have anything to smoke out of. In a fit of desperation, you decide to make a pipe out of a soda can. You may want to think twice before you start lighting up. The chemical makeup of the can may lead to effects that are really bad for you.

Basically, the can is trying to harm you in several different ways. There really isn’t a single thing used to make a can that is suitable for smoking.

The Inner Lining is Trying to Harm You

All modern aluminum cans have an inner lining / coating. This lining is a polymer. What’s a polymer? Well, it’s a whole bunch of different plastics bonded together. Sometimes they use BPA. Yeah, the stuff studies show may cause cancer. These studies are from people drinking from a BPA container. Who knows what smoking BPA could do to you.

For this reason alone, you should stop smoking out of cans.

The Paint is Trying to Harm You

The paint used on the outside of the can is either Thermoplastic or thermoset. They both contain plastic as a base material. Yup, the inside and outside of the can is coated in plastic. Who would have thought that the most dangerous parts of an aluminum can is all the plastic it contains? Don’t smoke plastic. For real.

Now the question that everyone has been waiting for…

Does Smoking Out of an Aluminum Can Cause Alzheimer’s Disease?

Probably not.

Let’s talk about where this idea came from. Throughout the 60s and 70s some medical scientists believed that aluminum could cause Alzheimer’s. This led to many people freaking out, and becoming suspect of everyday objects like foil, pot and pans, and drinking cans.

Given the prevalence of weed during that time period, I could imagine how this myth could become popularized, and engrained into weed culture.

“Since then, studies have failed to confirm any role for aluminum in causing Alzheimer’s. Experts today focus on other areas of research, and few believe that everyday sources of aluminum pose any threat.”

This certainly doesn’t mean that smoking out of aluminum isn’t bad for you. It just means there is not viable scientific proof that smoking out of a can causes Alzheimer’s disease.